"Americans will receive the online mode automatically in the games main menu from the get go, but the rest of the world will have to use a code packed in with the first shipment of the game to unlock it for free."

So if you're not in America, look for a code somewhere in the package, or email if you got it through Steam. I'm in the US, and am playing the Steam version, and though I've not played any contracts yet, I've seen a lot of popups in th egame menu while playing the sp campaign telling me about new contracts available to play.

"Americans will receive the online mode automatically in the games main menu from the get go, but the rest of the world will have to use a code packed in with the first shipment of the game to unlock it for free."

So if you're not in America, look for a code somewhere in the package, or email if you got it through Steam. I'm in the US, and am playing the Steam version, and though I've not played any contracts yet, I've seen a lot of popups in th egame menu while playing the sp campaign telling me about new contracts available to play.

The first time you go into Contracts mode it should prompt you to go through a tutorial on creating your own contract - that should give you the basics on creating one and also what you are meant to do to complete contracts other people set.

When searching for contracts there are 5 different options.

Featured contracts is a small number of contracts picked by Io from the community. They tend to refresh every couple of weeks, and usually end up with a huge number of people playing them.

Friends contracts - this is a way to find any contracts made by people on your friends list - lets you have an informal competition with them to find out who can set the highest scores on each others contracts

Queued contracts - when searching for contracts you can either do the one you are looking at, or mark it to be played later - this puts a contract into your queue. I've had over 15 in my queued list so not sure if there is a limit or not.

History - lets you look at the last few contracts you have competed in, either to check the score you set against others, or maybe there was a problem and you want to go back and try it again.

Search contracts - this is really the best way to search for contracts. Default view all options are set to all so it only lists the newest contracts that have been made. Depending on your platform there should be a button to press that options an options menu (look in the bottom right corner). that will let you set search filters - pick a map, difficulty mode, latest / most played / most popular, completion style (silent assassin, assault, disguises, improvised weapons) and a few others.

You must be connected to the internet in order to access the contracts and upload your scores